Lap readers and independent readers alike will be drawn to this book’s cartoonish illustrations and inclusive message.
In this children’s celebration of diversity, 5-foot-tall marketing expert Vee shows children that their differences can also be their strengths.
Little Jimmy, the author’s cartoon stand-in, is “unusually small,” but he doesn’t mind. “Each person is different,” he assures young readers, before going on to share how being short, tall, bespectacled, big, bald, large-nosed or scarred can be beneficial in life. He also highlights learned skills: “I can talk without moving my lips. / That’s what makes me a ventriloquist! / It is a thing that most people can’t do… / And something that makes me unusual too.” The book also touches on race as a quality that can make readers unique, although this aspect isn’t emphasized. The cartoonish illustrations show a multiethnic cast of various sizes and shapes, as befits the narrative, and Motz’s art style is sure to appeal to young readers. Although the rhymes are occasionally clunky,they flow well when read aloud. Problematically, however, Vee uses the word “lame,” which could refer to disability, as a negative. Also, at one point, a boy initially appears darkly scarred, but his injury is downplayed in a later illustration, after he becomes famous. However, these minor flaws don’t undermine the overall message. The book includes a page for young readers to write down “what’s unique about you,” and uses some vocabulary words, such as “ventriloquist” and “exploit,” clearly enough in context that independent readers should be able to gather their meanings. The book also encourages readers to learn about Vee’s Same Is Lame Foundation, at the author’s website.
Lap readers and independent readers alike will be drawn to this book’s cartoonish illustrations and inclusive message.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0985478223
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atlas Press
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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